ClipSafari for Hand Embroidery Designs

Stitchers are always looking for images that can be adapted easily and used in a hand embroidery design. ClipSafari is a site that houses images that are free to use. I browsed ClipSafari for hand embroidery designs and picked out a few images to illustrate to my readers what they will find on the site. Readers will quickly see how easily adaptable many of these images are. Many of the images can be traced off and use as is. If you need to know how to get a pattern on to fabric so you can stitch it check out my tutorial How to transfer embroidery patterns to fabric.

Since many embroiderers and crafters are aware of copyright issues, all clip art images on Clip Safari are distributed under the CC0 “No Rights Reserved” license. This means that you can copy, modify, and distribute these images, even for commercial purposes, without asking permission. You are legally use ClipSafari for hand embroidery designs, that you want apply to projects for events like charity drives or even your Etsy shop.

All images are available as PNG so you can print them out trace them off and adapt them to stitching. The other file format they are available in is SGV. Since most of the die cutting machines take SGV files I think there are many crafters and scrapbookers that will love that. I immediately started looking for shapes I could use on my scan n’ cut machine.

This next pair of images are what I call a studio journal idea. When I saw this butterfly I immediately thought about flower filled shapes. I would not work each flower in this design. Instead I would trace the outline of the shape and simply fill the area with floral stitches. It would be a fun project or piece of hoop art and not take too long.

The birds are a similar idea and could be worked the same way. I added these to my studio journal as I think I can adapt them to some really nice patterns and one of my resolutions this year is to design more!

When you enter ClipSafari you are presented with a search bar so you can search for a particular subject. Below the search bar are tags with which you can browse through topics.

I hope you enjoy browsing the site and it sparks a few creative ideas for you!

Thread Twisties!

Experimenting with different threads can be expensive, as you would normally have to buy a whole skein of each type of thread. So I have created my thread twisties combining different threads to use in creative hand embroidery. These enable you to try out stitching with something other than stranded cotton. For the price of just a few skeins, you can experiment with a bundle of threads of luscious colours and many different textures.

These are creative embroiders threads. With them, I hope to encourage you to experiment. Each Twistie is a thread bundle containing silk, cotton, rayon and wool. Threads range from extra fine (the same thickness as 1 strand of embroidery floss) to chunky couchable textured yarns. All threads have a soft and manageable drape so that twisting them around a needle makes experimental hand embroidery an interesting journey rather than a battle.  I have hand dyed many of these threads. All are threads I use. You may find a similar thread twist but no two are identical.

You will find my thread twisties in the Pintangle shop here.